In a morning filled with inquiry, laughter and wisdom, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue conversed with Purdue President Mitch Daniels about the importance of foreign trade, embracing technology and educating the public about U.S. agriculture.

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Perdue’s talk was part of the Ideas Festival celebrating Purdue’s 150th anniversary and coincides with Purdue’s Ag Week….Perdue focused significantly on the positive impact of new innovations and technology on agriculture.

“I hope we do not need to get hungry again in order to accept those wonderful (technological) techniques,” Perdue said. “We have non-transgenic gene editing now, and all that does is expedite what could happen naturally in a breeding technique very, very quickly. And to do that there’s amazing, exponential type of productivity that we can harness to help us feed the 9 billion people in the world.”

Another revolutionary change in agriculture would be broadband access across the country.

“It’s going to take broadband connectivity, not just in the farm houses, but in the fields,” Perdue said. “And that’s why 5G technology is one of the major transformation issues of our time….Very similar to what electrification did across the country in the 1930s.”